Isamu Cho

Isamu Cho (19 January 1895-22 June 1945) was a Lieutenant-General in the Imperial Japanese Army who commanded the IJA 10th Infantry Division at the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. Cho was known to be a quick-tempered man who would slap junior officers when angry or frustrated, and he was involved with nationalist secret societies before the war. He committed seppuku on Okinawa in 1945.

Biography
Isamu Cho was born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan on 19 January 1895, and he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1916 and from the Army Staff College in 1928. Cho served in the Kwantung Army in eastern China and became deeply involved with army politics, co-founding the Sakurakai secret society with the goal of overthrowing the democratic government of Japan and implementing state socialism. Cho served as the aide-de-camp to Yasuhiko Asaka during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and he was complicit in ordering the Nanjing massacre. During World War II, he commanded the 10th Infantry Group in Manchuria (1942-1944), and he was recalled to the Home Islands, promoted to Lieutenant-General in March 1945, and given command of the IJA 10th Infantry Division on Okinawa. He masterminded the elaborate underground fortifications around Shuri Castle, and he committed seppuku as the US Army overwhelmed the Japanese positions.